Paphos fire caused by unattended coals

The fire that broke out on Sunday in a two-story house in Paphos, appears to have been caused by burning coals, Paphos police spokesman Michalis Nicolaou said on Monday.

The fire broke out on Sunday at around 1pm in two buildings, a two-story residence and an adjacent ground-floor residence, in Mesogi.

An 83-year-old man lives in the first residence and his 61-year-old son in the second. An examination of the scene concluded the likely cause of the fire was coals left burning on a metal grill.

The fire completely destroyed the interior of the ground floor of the residence, and the two-story residence suffered extensive damage to its exterior walls and pergola.

To extinguish the fire, four fire trucks from the fire stations of Paphos, Stroubi and Peyia responded.

No one was injured.

“One house was extensively damaged and three others were affected,” fire department spokesman Andreas Kettis said.

An eyewitness told the Cyprus Mail that the fire was in a narrow street very close to other houses. “The smoke was visible from the other side of Paphos,” he said.